We mentioned this last week, but it’s worth a reminder.
The first Monday after Daylight Savings Time ends is often among the most dangerous traffic days of the year.
Drivers are still adjusting to the time change and the early darkness on their drive home.
So ride with extra care today, and for the next few days.
And if you’re riding home after dark, put some damn lights on your bike, already.
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The car that was allegedly used in the Silver Lake hit-and-run that left a homeless bike rider severely injured is owned by a woman who works for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The owner of a Glendale auto body shop saw video of the crash, and contacted police after recognizing the car as one he had in his shop; the owner had brought it in claiming she found it vandalized when she got up the next morning.
Unfortunately, she refuses to cooperate with investigators and tell them who was behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
Which means the investigation could be stymied unless police can find a witness or other evidence to show who was driving.
That’s just one more way the law needs to be changed.
In the event of a crash or some other event, the owner of the car should be presumed to be driving, unless they can show that someone else was behind the wheel.
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She gets it.
Thanks to LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis for recognizing the victims of traffic violence with a Dia de los Muertos altar and ghost bike at Grand Park over the weekend.
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A preliminary hearing will be held tomorrow for the alleged hit-and-run driver who critically injured a Ramona woman riding her bike to work last month.
Thirty-four-year old Ramona resident Chase Richard faces up to nine years behind bars on charges of hit-and-run with death or permanent serious injury, and hit-and-run with injury.
He’s currently being held on $2.5 million bail.
His alleged victim, 53-year-old Ramona resident Michelle Scott, remains in a coma with few signs of brain activity over a month after the crash, although she is breathing on her own after being taken off a ventilator.
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Evidently, Orson Welles wasn’t a big fan of cars.
https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1190361787134283777
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
A road raging Irish driver was fined the equivalent of $500 and banned from driving for two years for crushing a bicycle with his car, then backing up and driving over it again, because the rider asked politely to get past him at a red light.
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Local
One bit of very good news today. Roberto Diaz, the then-15-year old South LA boy who was critically injured when he was struck on his bike by a red light-running driver, and dragged 1,500 feet under his car, was finally released from the hospital after three months and a dozen surgeries.
A new street safety group will meet on Saturday the 16th to discuss how to pedestrianize Hollywood Blvd, starting from La Brea to Highland.
Justin Bieber is one of us, as he flashes his tatts riding his bike through Beverly Hills, with an IV still attached.
State
A San Diego man will spend the next six years behind bars for beating a 57-year old man to death, who tried using a bicycle to defend himself.
The San Diego Padres — the only major San Diego pro sport team that hasn’t moved to LA yet — will host their annual Pedal for the Cause bike ride to raise funds for local cancer research.
Sad news from Santa Cruz, where a man was killed after his bike somehow went off a cliff.
A San Francisco op-ed says a proposed tax on Uber and Lyft rides won’t work, and will only justify their drivers bad behavior. Like blocking bike lanes.
No bias here. A Marin columnist calls a new protected bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge a boondoggle even before it opens, saying his paper will be counting rush hour bike riders to prove it doesn’t work.
National
No, riding an ebike isn’t cheating. But it could put your car out of work.
Omaha, Nebraska considers changing the law to clarify that bike lanes aren’t parking lanes.
A San Antonio, Texas op-ed says it may seem counterintuitive, but if you want less gridlock, reduce road capacity.
They get it, too. Bike riders in Stillwater OK complain that a driver who injured a bicyclist wasn’t ticket for violating the three-foot passing law, saying it would be nice if the city recognized “bicyclists as people that are trying to get from point A to point B just like people in the car.”
A 38-year old Illinois woman with cerebral palsy is still enjoying her freedom on the adult tricycle her uncle built for her 26 years ago.
New York’s bicycle death toll rises to 27 — nearly three times the ten riders killed last year — when an 87-year old man died a day after he was hit by a speeding driver; naturally, the NYPD blamed the victim, even though witnesses said he wasn’t at fault. Some accounts put the city’s bike death toll at 25, after bizarrely excluding two people killed riding ebikes.
Evidently, those “virtually theft-proof” Van Moof ebikes aren’t so theft-proof after all, as New York police are looking for the owner after recovering one a thief was using an electric grinder to make off with.
Gothamist says this could be the beginning of the end for free parking in NYC.
Baton Rouge LA opens a key link in a planned 13-mile bike and pedestrian trail around the city.
A pair of Florida bike riders say they were arrested for running stop signs, although the local sheriff insists that’s not the whole story.
International
Road.cc looks at the stats, and concludes we’re not the demons some drivers insist on insisting we are.
It takes a major schmuck to steal a ghost bike for a fallen Canadian bike rider.
A British police investigator somehow concluded that a bike rider who collided with a 79-year old pedestrian as he stepped into the street was doing a remarkable 38 mph at the moment of impact. Even though his Strava account says he was just doing 18.
A ten-year old Edinburgh boy starts an anti-bullying campaign after he was attacked and beaten by a group of older boys, who stole his bicycle.
Evidently, bike thieves start young in Scotland, where a toddler makes off with a balance bike from his daycare, then tries to convince his grandmother he bought it on Amazon.
Cycling Tips offers advice from a Melbourne, Australia psychologist on how to keep riding your bike after you become a father. Or a mother, presumably.
Competitive Cycling
Bicycling says there were a lot of problems that led to the demise of next year’s Amgen Tour of California, but a new state law requiring gender pay equity wasn’t one of them.
American pro Peter Stetina says everyone wanted to compete in the AToC, just to race in California. But the race won’t be finishing at the Rose Bowl again any time soon.
Finally…
Remember, only one person on a bike. If you’re going for a bike ride, don’t forget your shades — no matter how many legs you have.
And nothing says fall like a jack-o-lantern protected bike lane.
